Guthrie Theater
The
Guthrie Theater is a venue for staging plays in
Minneapolis,
Minnesota. It was the result of Sir
Tyrone Guthrie's desire for a new kind of
theater that would provide an atmosphere which would encourage the production of great works of
literature and cultivate actors' talents away from the more commercial environment of
Broadway where increasing production costs demanded profitability over artistic content. The Guthrie Theater first opened its doors on
May 7,
1963 with a production of
Hamlet with
George Grizzard playing the lead and directed by Tyrone Guthrie himself. The Guthrie Theatre moved to a new, three-theatre complex after its 2006 production of
Hamlet closed on May 7.
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The new Guthrie Theater nearing completion |
Paired with an innovative philosophy that included a resident acting company with high professional standards was a unique
design concept in the stage itself.
Guthrie selected architect
Ralph Rapson to design the new theater. Rapson was a leading contributor to architecture's modern movement on the
East Coast from the late
1940s through the
1950s, and served as head of the
University of Minnesota School of
Architecture in the late
1950s. Rapson had also worked on some preliminary sketches of the
Walker Art Center, who donated some land for the Guthrie's construction. Guthrie and Rapson selected a modified
theater in the round design that featured a
thrust stage projecting from a back wall with seating surrounding nearly two thirds of it.
Tyrone Guthrie was a
British stage
director,
playwright, and
writer. He was director of the
Scottish National Players during the
1920s and directed the
Festival Theatre in
Cambridge, England. During the mid
1950s, Guthrie was the artistic director and co-founder of the
Shakespearean Festival in
Stratford,
Ontario. It was there that he first worked on the thrust stage that he included in the Guthrie Theater. In
1959 Guthrie published a small invitation in the drama page of the
New York Times soliciting communities interest and involvement in a resident theater. Out of the seven cities that responded, the
Twin Cities showed not only interest but also eagerness for the project.
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The original Guthrie Theater |
Frank Whiting, the director of the University of Minnesota Theater introduced Guthrie to the arts community in the Twin Cities and helped gather support that persuaded Guthrie to locate his theater in Minneapolis. With the help of the newly founded Tyrone Guthrie Theater Foundation a fundraising effort raised over
US$2 million. The new theater was completed in
1963 in time for the May 7th opening of
Hamlet. During its first season the Guthrie theater featured well known stage actors
Jessica Tandy and
Zoe Caldwell and featured a group of younger actors including
Joan van Ark. Tyrone Guthrie served as
Artistic Director until
1966 and continued to direct at the theater he founded until
1969, two years before his death. In
1966 Douglas Campbell was named Artistic Director. Campbell was an actor and director who considered Guthrie as a mentor.
Throughout the
1960s the Guthrie found
critical acclaim in its productions of
Henry V,
St. Joan,
Caucasian Chalk Circle,
Three Sisters and especially
The House of Atreus. In
1968 the production of
The House of Atreus was taken on the road in a national tour that was a first for a resident theater. Also starting in 1968 the Guthrie started producing a series of plays done on smaller stages in the Twin Cities area, Crawford-Livingston Theater and The Other Place.
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The new Guthrie Theater from across the Mississippi river with the Metrodome in the background |
In
1971,
Michael Langham became Artistic Director and produced highly successful classics including
Oedipus the King,
Love's Labour's Lost,
She Stoops to Conquer, and
A Streetcar Named Desire. Langham was a friend and colleague of Guthrie and continued the tradition of using a
repertoire of actors. After Langham left in
1977, the Guthrie crossed a milestone of sorts when for the first time it selected an artistic director that was not a respected collaborator or friend of the Tyrone Guthrie. That year
Alvin Epstein was selected as Artistic Director and was the first American to fill that role.
In
1980 Liviu Ciulei replaced Epstein. Ciulei was the former Artistic Director of the
Bulandra Theatre in
Romania and had a profound influence on the Guthrie theater. He challenged audiences with his bold theatrical interpretations and his highly contemporary and international style. Ciulei's intense interest in theater didn't stop at the productions themselves, he was a world-class designer and architect and one of the first things he did was to redesign the theater itself. His changes allowed more structural flexibility in the stage to allow each production a unique physical presentation. While Ciulei was not able to attain all the goals he had envisioned, he was able to maintain and advance the Guthrie's national and international reputation as a first-rate example of American Theater and drew critical success with productions of classics such as
Peer Gynt,
The Marriage of Figaro,
A Midsummer Night's Dream,
The Seagull, and
Tartuffe. He also was able to reestablish the Guthrie's commitment to acting ensembles by gathering together a rotating repertory in his last season as Artistic Director in
1985.
That year the Guthrie turned to
Garland Wright who had spent some time as Liviu Ciulei's Associate Artistic Director in the early
1980s as Ciulei's replacement. Wright had shared a vision with Ciulei that included the desire to have a second, smaller stage that could act as a lab to enable the exploration of new work and performance techniques. Born out of this vision was the
Guthrie Laboratory located in the Minneapolis Warehouse District. Wright also shared a desire to keep the concept of a resident acting company alive and used his ensembles to great effect. He was able to combine critical and popular success with a series of productions that helped reestablish a large, enthusiastic and loyal audience base. Productions from this period include
The Misanthrope,
Richard III,
The Screens, and a trilogy of
Richard II,
Henry IV (
Parts I and
II) and
Henry V,
Medea and
As You Like It. Wright also created a series of outreach programs designed to garner interest in theater among young people and involving high school and colleague instructors to help instill a theater-going habit. During this time the Guthrie also had a $3.5 million facelift that maintained Tyrone Guthrie's desire for an intimate theater-going experience.
Garland Wright announced his resignation in
1994 and after an international search for his successor,
Irish director
Joe Dowling was chosen as the Guthrie's seventh Artistic Director. Dowling had gained an international
reputation with his work at Ireland's national theater,
The Abbey Theater, including becoming the Abbey's youngest Artistic Director in its long history. Dowling continued the Guthrie's commitment to repertory theater and presided over a return to national touring. Along with an increase in the number of the theaters subscribers to a new high of 32,000, his production of
Shakespeare's
Hamlet, in 2006, is the Guthrie's most-attended play ever.
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The new Guthrie Theater, behind the Stone Arch bridge, on the west bank of the Mississippi River in Downtown Minneapolis. Picture taken on January 15, 2006 from St. Anthony Main |
Along with the Guthrie's groundbreaking production
philosophy, the theater itself gained a lot of attention by the unique style. The Guthrie's design arose out of
architect Ralph Rapson's work with the Walker Art Center who had asked him to work on some ideas for a small auditorium the Walker had in mind near their museum. The result was a theater with a thrust stage that put more demands upon performers on the stage, and for technical staff. The theater seated 1,441 people when it first opened its doors in
1963 and featured an irregularly-shaped stage that had 7 sides and took up 1120 square feet (104 m²). From the angles, seating radiates outward and upward, balconies hung over the space just under ceiling-hung acoustical panels that carried the asymmetrical theme all the way to the top of the theater. The uniqueness of the concept was carried right though to the use of a minimum of scenic props intended for suggestion rather than literal presentation of the physical production. In
1980 Artistic Director Liviu Ciulei redesigned the stage. The stage itself was modified so that its size, shape and height was adjustable, and he opened up the back wall to create more depth.
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There is a lot of unique lighting in the new Guthrie, as seen in this image of the 4th floor lobby |
The Guthrie is finished with construction of its replacement theater along the
Mississippi River in
downtown Minneapolis. The design is the work of architect
Jean Nouvel and is a 255,000 square foot (24,000 m²) facility that houses three theaters: (1) the theater's signature thrust stage, seating 1,100, (2) a 700-seat proscenium stage, and (3) a black-box studio with flexible seating. In
2002 the
National Trust for Historic Preservation put the old Guthrie building on its list of the most endangered historic properties in the United States in response to plans announced by the Walker Art Center to expand on the land occupied by the theater. However, officials at the Walker Art Center say that the original Guthrie building will be torn down late in the summer of 2006.
On May 7th 2006 the Guthrie Theater's original location closed following a final performance of
Hamlet. The first Guthrie production at the new location,
The Great Gatsby, opened on July 15th 2006.
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Facade reflected by exterior window |
*
Minneapolis Public Library *
Minnesota Historical Society*
History of the Guthrie Theater *
National Trust*
Save the Guthrie*
Photos of Guthrie II *
Guthrie Theater*
Tyrone Guthrie Centre
